PINOY MEME CULTURE AND ITS NEGATIVE EFFECT ON THE BEHAVIOR OF HIGH

SCHOOL STUDENTS

Presented to the

Faculty of School, St. Paul University of the Philippines

Tuguegarao City, Cagayan

Researchers:

Arugay, Wilson Mathugh

Calimag, Humphrey

Sebastian, Angelica

Tabbu, Natalie
 CHAPTER I

INTRODUCTION

A. Background of the Study

As proposed by Richard Dawkins (1976) memes are “cultural

entities such ideas and beliefs that evolve and spread through

time”. By analogy to genes, the general attempt to model cultural

developments on biological ones has been called memetics. The

content of memes vary depending on which location of the world

where it originates with most memes of the current generation

taking the form of an out-of-context snippet of an entertainment

medium accompanied by subtitles that induce a sense of relatability

and laughter to the viewer of the meme.

While Pinoy memes, as it has been called, has a similar form to

an average meme, but the memes origin is what draws controversy

from the public. Within the past year alone there have been memes

that arose from serious events including rape cases, arrests and

public slander with prominent examples like the “Mga Bobo” and the

rape case of Kristine, a girl from Cebu who was rapes and skinned.

These memes seem to flourish in social media platforms like

Facebook and other websites that prioritize anonymity. Even though

the memes were made from serious issues many netizens still find

dark humour and laugh at these memes. It has gone beyond the point

of just being entertainment and is now a reflection on how Filipinos

confront a topic. The implications of what this memes carry is not

the only cause of concern, we are mostly concerned on how these

 form of memes have affected the young and impressionable minds of

adolescents or High school students and how it will it affect how

they will tackle future issues and act in society. The fact that

issues as stated before even became a meme is enough to question

the sense of morality of these Pinoy memes and how they affect the

youth. This research will be conducted to gather insight to the

severity of the effects this memes have on High school students of

today. This research will serve as a basis for following researches

that wish to tackle this problem in the future by understanding

the source of these memes and how they come to be in the

Philippines. Through this research we will also be able to

determine any possible observed behavioural traits directly or

indirectly influenced by these memes.

B. Statement of the Problem

This research aims to observe how high schoolers react and

use with these newly dubbed “Pinoy” memes. This research will also

dive how these memes have affected social interactions of High

school students.

Specifically, it will answer the following questions:

1. What memes have High school students seen on social media?

2. What behavioural traits do High school students pick up after

seeing these memes?

3. What are the negative effects of Pinoy memes on High school

students?
 4. What messages do these memes imply and how are they integrated into

their social interactions?

C. Significance of the Study

This research is intended to provide insight to the current

state of memes as a part of Pinoy internet culture and how they

affect a High school student’s pathological thinking. The

significance of the study is, first, help adolescents take

corrective actions to any negative effect that exposure and

influence of these memes have brought. Second, the data this

research will gather will allow other students to understand their

peers. This research will also allow teachers or adults to

effectively understand why High school students do certain actions.

Third, online community- this research would allow them to rebuild

a stained reputation of being a bad influence by presenting its

mistakes in handling the content that they allow to be presented

in their platform. Lastly, this research can serve as a reference

material or basis for any following research that wishes to tackle

a similar topic or a research hoping to innovate this study to

tackle more specific problems.

D. Scope and Delimitations

This research aims to provide insight to the effects of memes

in the daily life of High school students. The studying of the

respondents will be held within the vicinity of Saint Paul

University of the Philippines and will focus on adolescents of

the High school division. The time they spend on the internet

is an extraneous variable but is still relevant to the study.

 CHAPTER II

REVIEW OF RELATED LITERATURE

In this chapter, the literature related to the topic, pinoy meme

culture and its effects on the behaviour of high school students, will

be critically reviewed to allow for the effective creation of a

theoretical framework for the study.

As of the 21st century the concept of memes have not been considered

as professional enough to warrant the attention of scholars. “In our

current media landscape, memes as an academic inquiry, are less

necessary. In the space of a decade, internet memes have gone from

quirky, subcultural oddities to a ubiquitous, arguably foundational,

digital media practice” (Kate Miltner, 2017).

Memes are often found in any form of internet platform that allows

for the publishing, sharing of images or videos. “The content of internet

memes refers to the ideas and ideologies that are expressed in the meme.

The form involves the physical incarnation the format (a video, a

picture) and the genre-related patterns’ of the format (font and dub)”

(Shifman, 2013).

As time moves forward and memes “evolved”, it started to spread at

a faster pace due to its simplicity and relatablity. It was stated by

Coin Hobins (2018), “Memes have made a huge impact in society. They’re

used on timelines, for advertising and instant messaging. It’s quick and
easy to get a point across whether it be for humour or to make a direct

case on a topic.”

There are also different classifications to these memes, with pinoy

memes falling under the locality memes or as described by Rasheed Khan

as “local memes that are specific to countries.” Pinoy memes having sub

categories of their own, ranging from, news, political, defamation, and

TV-related memes, each having their own meanings and implications.

Considering that 86% of the Philippines has access to the internet,

people of any age has an open reservoir to find and consume these memes.

Being born in an age of technological boom, adolescents are more in-

touch with the likes of social media than their preceding generation.

But while memes have the surface goal of providing joy and

entertainment, it cannot be ignored that they also have negative effects.

“…they’re photos of people, usually taken or posted without permission,

with added text about a photo as a caption” (Thompson, J. 2016). At the

time of this research there have been specific memes that have more

negative effects than what meets the eye.

Political distrust

It is not new information that even people from politics can and

have been turned into a meme carrying with them the ideologies that they

have. “Political internet memes have become a tool for citizens seeking

to participate actively and discursively in a digital public sphere”

(Heidi E. Huntington, 2017)

 It is important to note that not all the ideologies have positive

impact on viewers of these memes and are often used to discredit other

political factions. “Memes started to dominate news headlines and were

used to influence the political views of social media users” (Ofra Klein,

June 9, 2018)

Spreading fake news

Memes are very simple in nature and some people take advantage of

that fact by inserting false information which eventually spreads through

social media. “Memes can distort reality as they often present a

simplistic message. Through their briefness, facts can more easily be

left out. There is limited space for sharing detailed information or

presenting counter arguments” (Shifman 2014, 67).

Defamation of people

In relation to political memes, anyone can turn anyone into a meme,

with or without their knowledge. “Memes start out as photos, which show

the person in an unflattering light. Most of the time, the photo is

taken without permission and has poor quality. The photo gets block text,

or macros, added on, to make it even more embarrassing” (Julia Thompson,

June 27, 2016).

Normalizing violence in society

It is important to note that not all memes come to have a physical

form and may not always spread exclusively in the internet. A simple

joke can be considered as a meme so long as it meets the requirement of

being spread through the internet. An example would be the remarks of

President Duterte on rape. “Instead of seriously addressing the problem,

President Duterte has added insult to the scars of rape survivors”

(Felipe Villamor, August 31, 2018)

All the listed negative effects of memes are inter-connected to

how an adolescent would integrate them to their social life. “As can be

seen currently, the evolving technology can have a strong impact on

people’s lives, and especially if they are teenagers, as they are

vulnerable to change, and it can affect them in different ways. Since

they can be exposed to different types of victimization online, much

research has been done in this area in order to find out about behavioural

internet usage among teenagers”( Sara Al Mahrouqi, Ali Al-Badi and Oualid

Ali, May 4, 2016).

Conceptual Framework

The internet is now the most important aspect of many people’s

lives. It provides us with useful information, allows for self-expression

and entertains us in many forms, one of which are memes. Not everything

on the internet endorses good will and morals, often settling on the

dark humour that rely on the defamation of others to induce a laugh.

Anyone or anything can become a meme, which is bad because it allows for

the mockery of serious issues and people based on race, sex,

disabilities, etc. Pinoy memes are no exception with some of the most

recent memes stemming from news clips, arrests and rape cases.

One of the most frequent users of the internet are adolescents

lagging behind young adults. But unlike young adults, adolescents are
more easily influenced by what they see on the internet prompting them

to adapt it to their daily lives which can bring serious consequences.

Most of the time exposure to media with subtle messages and underlying

implications affect the way a person perceives others and themselves

thus changing how they behave and interact with others.

Research paradigm

INDEPENDENT VARIABLE DEPENDENT VARIABLE

NEGATIVE EFFECTS OF BEHAVIOR OF HIGH

PINOY ORIGINATED SCHOOL STUDENTS
MEMES

DEFINITION OF TERMS

Meme- cultural ideas or beliefs that exist within the internet capable

of widespread influence.

Pinoy memes- memes whose content originates from Philippine-based

mediums.

Negative effects- impact of exposure to ones psyche.

High school students – students from grade 7 to grade 10

Behaviour- how one acts or interacts around others.

 CHAPTER III

RESEARCH METHODOLOGY

The research aims to answer what behavioural effects memes have on

adolescents that expose themselves and consume on social media. The

research will use a qualitative approach and will provide and justify

predetermined behaviours over others. This section will outline an in-

depth discussion of the research design, locale, instruments, design,

respondents, and data collection.

Research design

The research will be using Descriptive Research for its research

design. It is an approach where the information gathered is collected

without manipulating any data. It shall be integral to the describing

of the gathered data, the interpretation and tabulation that will follow.

In the study, the researchers describe the behaviours of adolescents

influenced by memes.

Research locale

This study will be conducted in the locality of Saint Paul

University Philippines, Tuguegarao City, Cagayan provided that it houses

a substantial amount of adolescents to act as respondents for the

research.
Sample or Respondents

Students from grade seven to ten will be considered as the

respondents of the study for they fall within the range of 12-16 years

old and are classified to be adolescents. They will answer queries and

questions raised by the researchers. The respondents will be homogeneous

and will consist of 40 respondents. This research will use stratified

sampling technique, dividing them into strata based on their grade level

with 10 consisting of students from Grade 7, 10 consisting of students

from Grade 8, 10 consisting of students from Grade 9 and lastly 10

consisting of students from Grade 10.

Research instruments

This research requires for the effect of Pinoy memes on

adolescents. A series of questions will be used to derive information

from the respondents. Therefore the research will utilize checklist

questionnaires asking if they have experienced any change in their

behaviour and what they believe is the root of these changes.

Data collection procedure

The researcher constructs a checklist questionnaires that answer

the negative effects of Pinoy memes in adolescent behaviour. Prior to

the collection of data, the research teacher would evaluate the questions

to see if it is acceptable, once deemed so the researchers would hand

them out to the respondents.

Data analysis procedure

Discourse analysis will be used to determine the messages do these

memes imply and how they are integrated into their social interactions.

Applying logistics to the analysis of documented information gathered

in a social context. This would also allow us to look at the respondent’s

day to day environment and will use that information in the analysing

procedure.

Percentage will be used to analyse what memes have adolescents seen

on social media, what behavioural traits do adolescents pick up after

seeing these memes, and what are the negative effects of Pinoy memes on

High school students?